Learning How To Handle Tragedy

“A gunman set off fire alarms at a Florida high school on Feb. 14, luring hundreds of students out of their classrooms so he could open fire with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle.

After firing several rounds, the shooting suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, dropped his weapon and hid among the crowd as authorities evacuated students and faculty members from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Police captured Cruz over an hour later in Coral Springs, located about a mile away. He was taken to a local hospital and then released into police custody.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Fourteen others were wounded in the shooting, including several with life-threatening injuries.”

How can we handles such unbelievable tragic events? Tragedy comes in many ways.

A gunman kills students in a school

A drunk driver kills your child in a random accident

A level 4 hurricane wipes out everything and a loved one is killed in the strom

Your 30 year old nephew get cancer and after months of suffering dies a painful death

A child in your family suffers abuse

You can add your own story here: Very bad things happen that seem so horrible and painful we can hardly get our minds around them.

When the world is filled with such overwhelming events how can we cope with them? What is a healthy way to deal with such overwhelming loss? How can we still trust God when such horrors happen.

Dr. Norman Wise, Executive Director of Living Water Counseling, will attempt to provide logically sound, biblically informed, emotionally comforting, and practical advice for methods we can use to handle tragedy when it strikes.

Come and join us for this time of thoughtful reflecting and musing on this very difficult problem.